This is my new favourite photo of Boy Z. I think it just personifies him. In motion. Hair flying (Enjoy that hair, little one. Male pattern baldness is hereditary). A cheeky crooked smile. A little bit feral. It's just essence of Boy Z. It has been kind of a lost weekend. Not like those that were frequent in my 20's - days of memories lost to booze, drugs and the trappings that went along with them. No, lost in the sense of time that is irretrievable. Lost to a combination of driving rain, a dodgy tooth, a croupy [...]
I'm in Whyalla and I'm thinking about Neandertals. There's a joke there somewhere if you're a South Australian, but it isn't actually a very fair one, or a very good one for that matter. So far, my day in Whyalla has been chock full of bright friendly people and even good food. That being said, I'm at my university's regional campus rather than One Steel's blast furnace. Actually, it's probably a bit unfair to make Neandertal jokes about Neandertals. Most people who study these sorts of things think that Neandertals were probably pretty decent [...]
Back in the day (roughly 2007) I used to be able to cough up a blog post or even two a day. These days, I'm struggling to come up with one a week. It isn't lack of material or even lack of enthusiasm, really. It is lack of time. Back in the summer of 2007 when I started this blog I had 0 kids and a job that I was only doing to fulfill the terms of my contract. I had more free time than activities to fill it. Now, in the autumn of 2010 I've got two kids and [...]
I want a wish a Happy Mothers' Day to my Mom... ...and their Mum. Because this raising of boys is a tough gig, even if they don't grow up to be cowboys. ----------- I'm a fan of the original version of this song, but today isn't about me. I thought my special lady friend might appreciate the Lucinda Williams cover. This one and several other great covers (including a fantastic Dwight Yoakam cover of [...]
I'm becoming a big fan of Adelaide's Independent senator Nick Xenophon . He's one of those rare politicians who is thoughtful and deliberate and votes not along party lines but for his convictions. He's staunchly anti-gambling, an unpopular position in a nation that's been overrun by 'pokies' and multi-million dollar lotteries. I'm with him 100% on that stance, not for any moralistic reasons, but because gambling is, at its very root, a tax on the poor*. But that's not what I came to tell you about. Came to talk about China. Xenophon made the front [...]
I'm in Mt Gambier. I suspect that 99% of you don't know where in the world Mt Gambier is, I didn't until I looked it up on Google Maps a few days ago. I've flown down from Adelaide for the day to teach the first year nursing students about the skeletal system, part of my university's Regional Engagement Strategy. One of the things you might not know about Australia is that once you leave the half dozen or so densely populated urban centers (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, etc.) there are more kangaroos than there are people. You can drive hundreds [...]
Saturday was our two year immi-versary, the anniversary of our immigration to Australia. I stumbled off of a 24 hour flight into to the blazing South Australian with Dr. O'C and a seven month old Boy Z. I'd never been to Australia and despite befriending several natives (including the one I had lived with for seven years) and doing extensive research into my Antipodean future home, I hadn't a clue what to expect of the place. I was jobless, carless and clueless. It certainly wasn't my first move, it wasn't even my first international move. But I've never felt so [...]
I am sick. Meaning that the end of the world is nigh and the the air around me is filled with expelled virus and the soft moaning and whining of a man with the common cold. I felt it coming on Wednesday evening and in the interest of being prepared and minimising loss of work time, I decided to preemptively buy some cold medicine. I picked up a box of a commonly known cold and flu medicine that happened to be on special and happily toddled home. It wasn't until I decided to take one of the nighttime [...]
On Good Friday, an eight year old boy in the Sydney suburbs was attacked and bitten in the face by his neighbours' 18 month old Siberian husky. He required plastic surgery to repair deep gashes on his left cheek, nose and lips. This story sent a chill of recognition down my spine as did the photo of the little boy who had been attacked. What is more upsetting is that these are not isolated incidents. A couple of weeks ago a group of huskies attacked and killed a four year old boy in Pangnirtung, Canada. [...]
Back in the the days B.C., a four day weekend was all about rejuvenation of body and spirit. I used to gloat to friends and family about the liberal amount time off for Easter we were privy to in the Commonwealth while they were slaving away in their American sweat shops. These days, the days of parenthood, a four day weekend for Easter is all about trying to stay sane around a toddler whose had chocolate for breakfast and to fit in a bit of sleep around a baby who doesn't recognise the sanctity of night time. [...]
Easter's not really my thing. It is, by it's very nature, a religious holiday and not being a religious guy Easter falls a bit flat for me. I think Jesus had a lot of really good things to say. Shame, then, that so many of his followers are more interested in keeping women from having abortions, people from using birth control and gay people from getting married than loving their brothers'. And I just can't get my head around the whole virgin birth and resurrection thing. But we get a four day weekend and I've got at least [...]
Speaking of songs for boys , Colin Meloy's version of a traditional Northumbrian folk song is my current favourite ... Dance to your daddy, my little laddie Dance to your daddy, my little lamb You shall have a fish and you shall have a fin You shall have a heron when the boat comes in You shall have a lobster boiled in a pan Dance to your daddy my little lamb Dance to your daddy my little laddie Dance to your daddy my little lamb When [...]
(Or on Puff the Magic Dragon and masculinity.) One of my favourite sources for kids' music is Cover Lay Down's Kidfolk series. Not too long ago, one of Boyhowdy's featured tracks was a version of "Puff the Magic Dragon" by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary fame. "Puff" is a song that I remember fondly from my own childhood, one that my Dad used to sing to me. Hearing it again after a couple of decades, I was struck by how sad a song it is - [...]
Reason #143 that I love Australia: public holidays for trivial reasons. There's the Queen's Birthday in June (which is not actually the current or any past Queen of England's birthday), Family and Community Da y in the ACT in September, Eight Hours Day in Tasmania in March, Picnic Day in the Northern Territories in August and yesterday's Adelaide Cup Day . A day off for a horse race. I'd compare it to having a day off for the Kentucky Derby, but the Adelaide Cup isn't that big. It's more like having a day off for some [...]
This made me laugh out loud when I saw this advert for the Sydney Fish Market in the local " newspaper " today: It's kind of an inside joke - Australians will definitely get it. For you non-Australians, let's just say that if I were so inclined, I could quite easily produce a Mullets of Adelaide photoblog with daily updates. Without even venturing into the northern suburbs. Beyond that, I've got nothing to say except that my monthly science post is up at The Greenists . Hasta [...]
Boy Z and I need dates this weekend. For WOMADelaide . Dr. O'C is not a fan of 'hippy shit'. (Nor, for that matter, am I. But I'm too old and Boy Z is too young for Big Day Out and I want to take some advantage of The Festival State 's offerings) And she reckons that Not Max may not enjoy a day of music, possible rain and loud music. I defer to her maternal judgement. So, I started looking around for company. I asked friend after friend and was repeatedly [...]
I've been informed that Not Max is six months old today and that I need to write a post commemorating this because I did so for Boy Z . So, well done Not Max. Well done for keeping a smile on your face despite dealing with the negligent parenting that is the lot of the second child. Hang in there, Boy #2, one of these day you'll get one of those beamers back. Today is also the first day of Autumn in Australia and appropriately the first day of a new semester. I spent a good [...]
Happy 64th, Dad! . . . And yes, I did forget to send a card. Pretend that this is it. --------- The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is available from Amazon .
I keep thinking of the scene in "As Good As It Gets" when Jack Nicholson's character gets a bit tearful after returning Greg Kinnear's dog. He exclaims with a grim chuckle: "Over a dog ! Over an ugly dog!" I know how Melvin Udell felt. My dog wasn't ugly, but he was damn stupid . He has been gone for almost three months now and I still find myself sucked into occasional and inconvenient bouts of grief. It's largely spurred by my son who, in his innocence and lack of understanding, will [...]
Often, what inspires me to write is some song or the other playing in the background while I'm doing something else. Last night, for example, I was cooking our Pancake Tuesday dinner and this track from 80's greats Camper van Beethoven came on the old iPod. ...And if I weren't a civil servant, I'd have a place in the colonies We'd play croquet behind white-washed walls and drink our tea at four Within intervention's distance of the embassy The midday air grows thicker with the heat And drifts [...]
A Free Man
iamamiwhoami: kin - Teaser
Album Review: alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros: Here
Azealia Banks – ’1991′ & ‘Van Vouge’
